


Look at this Photograph

by hpdm4ever, MessiFangirl (hpdm4ever)



Category: Football RPF
Genre: FC Barcelona, Friendship/Love, Gen, Locker Room, Neymessi, Oneshot, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Pre-Neymar at PSG, Prompt Fic, Prompt Fill, Team as Family, Translation into Chinese available, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-10
Updated: 2018-07-10
Packaged: 2019-06-08 08:55:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15239853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hpdm4ever/pseuds/hpdm4ever, https://archiveofourown.org/users/hpdm4ever/pseuds/MessiFangirl
Summary: For a prompt on tumblr: You should write something about that Picture Lio post on facebook like, idk, how does the person that took it felt about capturing that beautiful and vulnerable man in just a photo and then seeing that Lio himself post it!! That'll be soooo romantic Bonus points if it's a neymessi(First publishedon tumblr in January 2017as "Neymar's Picture")Now translated into Chinese byshikicrossonAO3andLofter.com.





	Look at this Photograph

**Author's Note:**

> I've been meaning to move over some of my tumblr drabbles and oneshots. Just want to have them all in one place. So if this seems familiar, perhaps you read it when I posted it on tumblr xo

Ney’s not doing anything out of the ordinary when he starts taking random pictures in the locker room.

His phone is always with him (even when it’s not supposed to be) and his teammates have long gotten used to the camera taking incriminating pictures of them. They pretty much ignore it unless they’re asked specifically to pose or smile. And the only reason Ney gets away with it is because he never posts any of the truly personal shots on Snapchat or Instagram. They just stay on his phone–his private phone–and are merely for Ney to remember the moment.

Rafa and Samuel are the ones that indulge him the most, and they’ll make the craziest faces or do the silliest dances, half of the time laughing too hard and moving too much for Ney’s phone to capture them. But Andrés will often smile or Marc will act like a model, Jordi will puff his cheeks out like a chipmunk while Masche will stick out his tongue. Arda will pretend to hide his face in shame while Geri gives the finger, and Ivan and Paco often try to flash him. (The truth is, they try and often succeed.)

The fact is that nobody really minds the pictures he takes (and even Lucho just waves his hand and lets Ney do what he wants), and he’s sort of considered the unofficial team photographer. But he’s more than a photographer–he’s their teammate–and as a result, he’s often able to catch more intimate shots than a regular photographer.

Ney’s always off guard when he manages to capture a truly special moment.

Those pictures are one in a million–pictures you couldn’t recreate if you had hours and hours to try–and they’re always worth more to Neymar than anything else in the world.

He can’t even put the feeling into words. There’s something just so magical about it–being able to stop a moment in time, being able to pause and catch a glimpse of something that most people are not privileged enough ever to see. And they’re usually just something so small: frustration, tears, laughter…

The picture of Leo is… It’s one of the most beautiful pictures he’s ever taken.

And it’s not perfect, he can already see that there’s the knob on the locker on the top right, and Luis’ one hand being out of focus while his second hand is in focus is annoying…

But Leo.

Smiling, laughing, utterly carefree.

He’s beautiful.

And Ney didn’t mean to take it. He’d taken the group picture of all three of them so that he could post that one–he’d specifically told them what he was doing and they’d all okayed it, laughed at the idea of firing Marca’s words back against them. And then Ney had posted it, feeling a slight bit of anxiety about how those words could come back to bite him if he didn’t have another good game soon.

But then he’d heard laughter and he’d looked up to hear Luis squawking and Masche protesting and Leo laughing, and before Ney knew what he was doing he’d snapped a few pictures of them all. He hadn’t thought anything of it, not until he’s changed and gathering his stuff off of the bench. He’s scrolling through his new pictures, deleting some here and there that are blurry or too dark to fix.

And then he sees it. Sees the picture of Leo. And he freezes. He just stares down at it, unable to believe that he actually managed to catch Leo like that. And it’s because Ney’s so still, so quiet, that when Leo touches him on the arm, Ney doesn’t have time to react.

“Ney?” Leo asks, hand catching Ney’s elbow. “You alright?”

Ney more or less feels the way the air escapes from Leo’s lungs at the sight of the photo. And then Ney can’t tell whether it’s a good sigh or a bad sigh, especially because Leo just stands there silently.

“Can you–can you send that to me?” Leo finally says, his voice as soft as always. “I’d like to post it on Facebook, if that’s okay with you?”

Ney very carefully doesn’t look at him. “Of course,” he says, having to try a few times before he can get the words out. His heart is beating a little too quickly and he’s afraid Leo can hear it. The truth is that he’d rather not share this picture–he’d rather keep this one private.

It’s too special for the rest of the world and Ney wishes Leo could see that.

But then again, Leo has never–in all the time that Ney’s been taking pictures of them–asked for any of Ney’s pictures to post. And Leo’s seen many of them since Ney always has his phone out and he’s always scrolling through them to edit them or brighten them. So the fact that Leo’s asking for a picture now? Ney can’t refuse him.

Ney can’t ever refuse anything Leo asks of him.

“Thank you,” Leo says, dropping his hand from Ney’s elbow. He leans against Ney slightly, giving him a bit of a push with his body. “It’s… nice, right?” he asks like he isn’t sure, and Ney has to roll his eyes.

“It’s nice,” Ney confirms, texting it to Leo and waiting for the resulting chime to come from Leo’s pocket.

“Thank you,” Leo says again, but whether it’s for the text or for taking the photo, or even for implying Leo looks good… Ney doesn’t know. And then Leo rests his head on Ney’s shoulder, as if he’s tired all of a sudden.

Ney very carefully doesn’t move.

“I want to show–that I… It’s just… They always think I’m not happy here,” Leo murmurs, the two of them pressed together while their teammates continue to get ready to leave. “No matter how many times I say it, or how I show it on the pitch… They keep trying to get me to leave.” He raises his head and looks at Ney. “I want to stay at Barcelona,” he says quietly, earnestly, so full of feeling that it nearly brings tears to Ney’s eyes. “With Andrés and Geri and Luis… and you.”

And all Ney can say is, “I know.”

But it’s enough, and Leo’s smile comes back.

This time Ney isn’t taking a picture. He can’t save this moment on his phone forever so he can come back to it time and time again. He won’t be able to look at this moment years from now when he’s missing Leo.

But it doesn’t matter.

Because sometimes the real thing is better than a picture.

 

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [look at this photography](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15600822) by [shikicross](https://archiveofourown.org/users/shikicross/pseuds/shikicross)




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